The German led the way throughout the top-ten shootout and in the end his best lap, a 1 minute 13.014 seconds, was two tenths up on his closest rival.

Fernando Alonso meanwhile will start alongside Vettel on the front row and late on looked like he might just beat the reigning world champion. However it wasn't to be, although his final lap did put him just ahead of his Ferrari team-mate, Felipe Massa in third - just 0.018 seconds between them.